HS Pitcher Breaks School’s 31 yr Strike Out Record, passing 3 current MLB players

quite an accomplishment for your son congrats and cant wait to see him at UMBC next year. GO RETRIEVERS!!!!!!!!

Great acccomplishment! Congrats, Denis!

Great accomplishment Denys! Watched this kid pitch against Oakton, phenomenal pitcher despite his attitude. Watch this kid play! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Jb2Jakdak

Big Boy, Classless reply.

Congrats Denis! Outstanding job! Look forward to following your accomplishments at UMBC...


Big_Boy_703

Not sure I get your post. You say congrats to Denis but spell his name wrong, take a little swipe at his attitude and then you post a video of some other player.

Did you really mean to congratulate Denis or were you looking for an audience to watch your video? Confusing...

Sorry NOVABBall13, I purley meant for it to be a compliment to your baseball ability. Im sorry if you took that the wrong way. He does have a similar pitching ability to yours thats the main reason I posted this video. I did not mean to imply that this was a video of you I just thought it would be nice to compare you to a player that went pro. Once again congratulate you on your accomplishment and wish you the best of luck next year with the golden dogs

big boy 703 is clearly confused and/or misinformed.

Denis is a true talent. He has played with my son the past few summers and falls. I love the kid. His competitive nature is often misunderstood as attitude...generally from those that he faces. Does he play with and "edge"? Hell yeah...

FYI little pup...novaball13's son was on that same team...and doesnt pitch. Take your jealousy elsewhere.

Big_Boy_703 – It appears you are the same person who has criticized Robinson baseball players in the past. You said you were a Centerville Varsity Player or maybe you are just posing as a player, not sure.

http://hsbaseballweb.com/eve/f...377034616#2377034616

You can have your own opinion, but critizing individual players really shows your immaturity.

big boy 703.
If you are a player on Centerville's Varsity Team, did you know that Denis will be rooming next year with your current starting shortstop and that they will be playing college ball together for the next 4 years? Did you know one of his best friends is your starting catcher? Did you know your head coach personally came to him after the first game played this year and congratulated him and said he handled himself well under adverse conditions? I just think you are not well informed.

Of course I know Kevin Lachance is going to be rooming with your son. Bobby San Martin is a good player and should do well at JMU. Im not sure why you feel the need to question wether I am a player because even if I wasnt it would still be apparant to tell that Mikush is a imature and not the personality you are describing. For example when he flicked off our home croud because they were ragging on him for losing the game for his team by making a costly fielding error.

i am glad you brought this up big boy. Denis is a great player no doubt about that. His name has come up as one of the top players in the northern region for the last 3 years now but the attitude is whats gonna seperate him from those past pitchers from robinson. I myself am good friends with the clemens family and know that paul is one of the best kids youll ever meet. He was always calm and composed on the mound and would have never flicked off the crowd which i did see when i was in attendance at that game last year. things do change though and i wish nothing but the best for denis.

What kind of bushleague crowd rags on a High School player for making an error?

I was not at the game, but I heard from a couple of pretty well respected people that it was not the crowd but the Centreville coaching staff who coaxed the finger out of Denis. Do not condone the kids action but how about the coaching staff.....

I have watched Denis all year. He has not only played extremely well all year, but he's also carried himself well. There were some issues last year where he did some things he likely regretted. I haven't seen that this year. He's not an angel (sorry Bill), but he's represented the school well this year. If you look back on past Robinson aces, you had first team all met AJ Johnson yelling at his dad from the mound, you had Clemons punch a coach in college, etc. You need to understand circumstances and all of the facts before you reach conclusions.
In terms of the Centreville interactions, their coach is the worst I've seen all year. His behavior, attitude, and way that he carries himself have me glad that we are not associated with him. If we're referring to last year's game at Centreville, it was the coach who had his pitcher throw at Denis. It was the coach that egged on the crowd to heckle him at third base. It was the coached that supposedly used the f-bomb directed at him. Denis is a high school kid. Last I checked, the coach isn't. He's an embarrassment.

As I recall from last year, the game in question was the last regular season game of the year and Centerville's senior night. Denis was the starting pitcher for Robinson and they went up 8-2 after 5 innings. The Robinson team had previously lost several games in a row to Centerville, including a District playoff game the prior year, a game in which Denis also happened to pitch in as a sophomore. The Robinson team had already hit three HRs and was in full command of game with only a couple innings left.

Denis came up to bat in the top of the 6th. The first pitch was high and inside, almost hitting him. The second pitch thrown was even further inside and hit him in the back. Not saying it was deliberate, but most Robinson fans in attendance will tell you that was the coach’s strategy. The Robinson head coach at the time removed him from the mound and placed him at 3rd base in the bottom of the inning, right next to the opposing dugout, fans and coaches. At the time, probably removing him from the mound was a good idea, since things didn't need to heat up anymore. But, moving him to 3rd base was not a great idea.

The strategy must have worked, because Centerville scored six runs in the last two innings to tie the game and they won it in extra innings. His error at 3rd base with two outs in the last of the 7th, allowed the tying run to score and his coach pulling him from the game altogether in the middle of the inning.

So let's summarize. He was pitching a great game and leading 8-2 through five innings, gets hit in the back with fastball on a questionable pitch, gets pulled from pitching in the game, is moved to 3rd next to the opposing fans & coaches, makes the error with two outs in the bottom of the 7th that leads to the tying run scoring and lastly gets pulled from the game altogether after the error. I'd have to say this would have been a tough night for any ballplayer.

Last Friday, Denis pitched a complete game 3-1 win against Centerville in District Playoffs. Centerville is a strong team that has three graduating Div 1 position players in the lineup, all making the district 1st team selection. The pitcher he opposed was also a District 1st team selection. Heck no other team in the district had that many 1st team players and they also beat Denis in a close game earlier this year. But in this playoff game, he had a one hitter going into the 7th. Centerville did not go down quietly and made it close in the bottom of the 7th by loading the bases, but the last out was on his 12th K of the game. The game was not decided until the final pitch. The first thing he said after the game was he felt bad for his friends on the opposing team. Several of these boys play on the same travel showcase team. He pointed out that it was a while since Centerville last won the district title and many of his friends were disappointed and upset. He wanted to stop over one of his friend’s house after the game to console him, but since the game started so late (after 9:00 PM), their bus did not arrive back to the high school until well after 11:00 PM Friday night. However, he did get to go to his friend’s graduation party the next day. I guess we all need to remember baseball is just a game and should not be taken too seriously.

Big Boy...your posts are nothing but negative...and about a HIGH SCHOOL player...you should change your name...and while you are at it...leave...dumb***

I'll take the player you are jealous of any day of the week.

A couple of other observations I noted from that game last year.

Everyone knew the Centerville coaches had a strategy to frustrate the pitcher. The batters would step out of the box as often as possible, trying to get the pitcher off his game. Teams do this tactic all the time. I lost count, but it seemed like every batter would purposely step out at least once during an at bat. Some batters would do it two or three times an at bat. It got so comical after a while. I suppose its good strategy, if it works. I believe the umpires lost control of the game and did nothing in attempt to speed it up this delay tactic. If I remember correctly, the first couple innings lasted over an hour and the entire game lasted over 3-1/2 hours. Believe me; it was frustrating to even watch.

Also, the old Robinson head coach (Robinson is now on their 3rd baseball head coach in 4 years) did nothing to help the situation. Not once did he come out of the dugout to complain or question a call during that game, and there were several incidents that you would think the coach would come out to protect his players. I'm only saying, if a coach has your back and is willing to at least question a play, maybe incidents can be resolved before they even get started.

If you’re a high school coach or even a parent of either team, and you see a player getting verbally abused by fans during a game, you should step in. It’s only fair; these are not professionals and only teenagers trying to play the game they love. They are probably trying to impress their coaches, family, teammates, girlfriends and maybe college coaches in attendence. There’s a lot of pressure on them to begin with and you just don’t need abuse from fans.

Wow, it took over a year for all of this to come out. I thought this was all in the past. I know the player and the coach made amends long ago.

Last week Denis Mikush, Chase Bailey and Patrick Baker all made 1st Team Concord District. From what I was told, two of the boys made 1st Team Region and I believe the other made honerable mention. Denis and Chase both made 1st Team Region. I guess this all gets made official tomorrow. I'm glad to see performance, attitude and desire getting rewarded. Great job to all three boys.

Robinson went from I believe last place in the Concord District a year ago to winning the District Tournament this year. They may lose out early in the Regional Playoffs, but this team should be very proud of what they accomplished this year.

The school was lucky to bring in a new coach with a winning background. Tell me that doesn't make a difference. In addition, 15 of the current 22 players on the roster were not even on the Varsity Baseball team a year ago. They are an extremely young team that should hopefully compete for years to come.